History is the best guide to navigating the future. As the Republican Party engages in post-defeat soul searching and internal debate, it's educative to re-visit prior internal debates.

The 1980 presidential nomination contest was, in one respect, just such a debate because it wound up pitting the exponent of dynamic, pro-growth conservatism -- Ronald Reagan -- against the champion of establishment, green-eyeshade Republicanism -- George H.W. Bush.

Tax cuts were a central issue in the Reagan-Bush primary battle. Both men favored tax reduction, but came at it from distinct ideological directions. You can see this clearly in this video of a debate between Reagan and Bush from April 24, 1980, in the wake of Bush's defeat of Reagan in the Pennsylvania primary.


The best line is this one from Reagan at the tail end of the video, in response to Bush's contention that tax cuts depress revenue and must wait until the federal budget is balanced:

I've heard for a great many years...we can't reduce taxes until we reduce government spending.

And I have to point out that government does not tax to get the money it needs -- government always needs the money it gets!

Democratic members of the state legislature should be forced to recite that 10 times every day when they wake up and again before they go to sleep.

Obviously, Reagan won that argument and changed the course of American history.

It's also fascinating to see how the physical appearance of presidential debates have changed over the years: from high school gym decor to Hollywood production values.